Henri Matisse

French, 1869 - 1954

Introduced to painting while recovering from appendicitis at age 19, Henri Matisse abandoned his job as a law clerk to compose conventional Dutch-inspired still lifes and interiors using a somber palette. After moving from northern France to Paris in 1891, his colors brightened and his style evolved under the influence of Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and others.

In 1904, while working along the Mediterranean coast, he fully liberated his colors in bold hues that eliminated shadows and defined forms. This experimentation—dubbed fauvism (from “wild beasts”)—was a brief but crucial step in Matisse’s lifelong goal of expression through color. As he traveled throughout North Africa and Moorish Spain from 1906 to 1913, his sense of abstraction heightened, expressed in mural-sized canvases that explored color intensity in relation to human form and studio objects.

During the 1920s, Matisse reverted to more conventional modeling, cohesive space, and blended brushwork, depicting figures in exotic costumes in the textile-sheathed interior of his Nice studio. With a commission to design a mural for the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia, however, Matisse reentered the avant-garde fray.

Throughout the 1930s, his paintings became more boldly decorative as the illusion of depth was compressed into solid planes of color. This culminated in his return to the cutout technique, which he had first explored in designing costumes and scenery for the Ballets Russes in 1919. By cutting sheets of paper painted with meticulously mixed hues, Matisse “painted with scissors.” These ensembles allowed him to continue creating art despite his failing health once he reached in his early 70s. He also translated these shapes—along with a rekindled love of drawing—to book arts.

Throughout his life, Matisse published personal artist statements and dedicated at least an hour a day to writing letters to friends and family. These written and visual records illuminate a man consumed by color, fascinated by pattern, and enamored with the act of creation in wide-ranging materials and forms.

Explore selected works

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A French window with its sill lined with flowerpots opens into a view of boats floating in a body of water in this loosely painted, vibrantly colored, stylized, vertical painting. The doors open inward, and they are painted with coral orange and cranberry red. The wall behind the door to the left is peacock blue and the wall to our right is fuchsia pink, and those colors are reflected in the opposite windows of the doors. Three flowerpots in crimson red, marmalade orange, or royal blue sit on the windowsill in front of us. Foliage in the pots is painted with short strokes of cardinal red and turquoise blue. Over the window, a two-paned transom window pierces a forest-green wall. The view through the panes has a band of salmon pink across the top and dabs of celery green and banana yellow below. The dabs and dashes of pine and lime green continue down the sides of the window and across the sill, suggesting vines growing up around the opening. A band of ultramarine blue beyond the flowerpots could be a balcony. Several rust-orange masts of ships with hulls painted with swipes of indigo blue, flamingo pink, forest green, and marigold orange float in the water beyond. The water is painted with parallel strokes in pale pink and butter yellow. The sky above is painted with thick, wavy lines of steel blue, periwinkle purple, and seafoam green. The artist signed the work in red paint in the lower right, “Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.7

Open Window, Collioure

Henri Matisse · 1905 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.7
We look slightly down onto a nearly nude woman with pale pink skin, who sits facing away from us as she lifts her hands to her dark hair in this vertical painting. The scene is painted with broad, visible strokes, and some details are difficult to make out. The woman's torso and head almost fill the vertical height of the painting. The scene is loosely painted so some details are indistinct, but she seems to face a mirror above the small table of a vanity. Visible brushstrokes in tones of pale peach and pink, taupe, and faint sage green capture her spine, shoulder blades, the muscles of her arms, and the dimple above her round buttocks. She uses both hands to pin up her chestnut-brown hair above a rectangular clip painted in muted gold with touches of light pink. She sits sideways in a wooden chair so the ladder-back is to our right. Her thighs are wrapped in a fluffy white piece of cloth, perhaps a towel, which may be wrapped with a ruby-red cloth or it could be a red cushion beneath. The surface of the narrow tabletop in front of her, to our left, is painted with areas of sage green, elephant gray, and royal blue. About a dozen orbs in coral orange and fuchsia pink above and around a band of canary yellow suggest flowers in a yellow vase along the left side of the table. The mirror above the vanity has a wide, gold frame. The woman’s reflection is painted with long strokes of ash brown with a few touches of rose pink. Though abstracted, the reflection seems to capture her torso and one bent elbow. The wall to our left of the vanity is pale pea green and to our right, dark brown. Streaks of honey-brown against a black field in the lower right corner suggests an area rug on an otherwise peanut-brown floor. The artist signed the work in marine blue in the lower left corner, “Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, La coiffure, 1901, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.165

La coiffure

Henri Matisse · 1901 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.165
Shown from the chest up, a woman with a pale, peachy skin wears a turban and a goldenrod-yellow jacket in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. Many of the features and forms are outlined in gray and filled in with areas of mottled color so brushstrokes are visible. The woman’s shoulders face us, and she tips her head a little to our right. One brown eye, to our left, seems to look at us, and the other might look off over our right shoulder. Her nose is indicated with a wavy line for a pointed tip, and her small pink lips are closed. She has a square jaw and a narrow chin. Black hair curls over her ears. The rest of her hair is covered by a turban, which touches the top edge of the composition and is pale pink to our left and ivory white to our right. Her yellow garment is fastened at her throat and has rows of darker gold circles, perhaps buttons or other trim, down the open front over a white shirt. The papaya-orange corners of a square-backed chair is behind her shoulders, about halfway up the picture. The background is streaked with laurel green, flax, and lemonade yellow to our left, and deepens to dark, pewter gray to our right. The artist signed and dated the painting with olive-green script in the upper left corner: “Henri-Matisse 1917.”
Henri Matisse, Lorette with Turban, Yellow Jacket, 1917, oil on wood, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.39

Lorette with Turban, Yellow Jacket

Henri Matisse · 1917 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1963.10.39
The sculpture depicts a female figure seated on the edge of a large block, with her legs crossed and her feet on the ground. She faces us, her hips tilted towards the left. Her left hand is placed between her thighs, while her right arm rests on the block that she sits on. Her hair is pulled back from her face, and she has a long nose, round eyes, and small lips. The sculpture is crafted from a dark-colored material with a textured surface. The sculpture sits on a thin rectangular base.
Henri Matisse, Figure décorative, 1908, bronze, Gift of Victoria and Roger Sant, 2011.9.1

Figure décorative

Henri Matisse · 1908 · bronze ·  Accession ID  2011.9.1
This painting depicts a partially nude woman from the waist up. She is seated, facing us, wearing a bright blue headscarf that conceals her hair. There is a small black cross on her forehead. The woman has pale skin, dark eyes, and a neutral expression, and she wears with a necklace of round yellow ornaments. Her chest is bare, but a green fabric is wrapped around her waist. Her hands are clasped in her lap. The chair she sits on has yellow and olive-green stripes, and the wall behind her is tan, with red, leaf-patterned drapery on the right side.
Henri Matisse, Odalisque, Half-Length--The Tattoo, 1923, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.40

Odalisque, Half-Length--The Tattoo

Henri Matisse · 1923 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.40
A person sits at the side of a dappled dirt path that curls along the edge of a green hill and through towering trees in this loosely painted horizontal landscape. The person is painted with a few strokes of peach to represent a light-skinned person wearing a white shift and blue hat. The low hill slopes down to the right. Trees are loosely painted there in the ravine and along the far side of the path. The sky is pale periwinkle blue. The artist signed the lower left corner, “Henri-Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Les Gorges du Loup, 1920/1925, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.166

Les Gorges du Loup

Henri Matisse · 1920/1925 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.166
A geranium with vibrant pink blossoms sits in a terracotta pot on a ledge in front of two shelves in this stylized, vertical still life painting. The orange terracotta pot has patches of vivid spring green around its base. The rounded leaves of the plant and petals of the blossom are outlined in black and filled in with areas of parakeet and moss green for the leaves and pink for the petals. The pot sits on a bright, lavender-purple ledge, and two more shelves are stacked behind it. A single terracotta pot sits to our left behind the plant on the lower shelf, and four pots are lined up on the shelf above, cut off by the top edge of the canvas. Brushstrokes are visible throughout. A turquoise strip runs along the bottom edge of the composition, and the artist signed the lower right corner, “Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Pot of Geraniums, 1912, oil on linen, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.41

Pot of Geraniums

Henri Matisse · 1912 · oil on linen ·  Accession ID  1963.10.41
Fields of elephant gray, coral orange, and turquoise surround a fan-like, abstracted palm frond near the center of this vertical, abstract painting. The fronds of the palm radiate like a starburst against unpainted, cream-white canvas. Three black, vertical bands spaced behind the palm suggest tree trunks, with the rightmost trunk dotted with spring green, perhaps representing moss or the leaves of a vine. The fields of gray to either side of the frond, the turquoise areas below the gray, and the coral at the bottom center are painted with visible brushstrokes, creating a mottled effect. Rounded turquoise forms above the gray are silhouetted against a field of pale blue, perhaps representing the sky along the top edge. A few pointed, oval leaves painted spring green with black outlines dip into the scene from the top of the composition. The artist signed the work in dark green paint in the lower right: “Henri-Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Palm Leaf, Tangier, 1912, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 1978.73.1

Palm Leaf, Tangier

Henri Matisse · 1912 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1978.73.1
A woman wearing a pale blue and gray patterned top and turquoise skirt stretches out in an armchair in this stylized, almost square painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of mostly flat color, especially in the background, so some details are difficult to make out. The woman is centered in the composition, and her legs stretch to our left. She has upswept dark brown hair, peach-colored skin, and her eyes, nose, and mouth are drawn with dark gray lines. Her blousy top is vertically patterned with lead-gray leaves down the front and elongated dots on the sleeves. Each sleeve also has a carrot-orange band on the upper arm. Her skirt is spearmint green, and she wears bone-white pumps. She sits in a canary-yellow armchair with red down the front of the arms and along the bottom, where the wood frame would be. One foot stretches to rest on a matching footstool, while her other leg is curled under her. The denim-blue floor tilts toward us and is covered with thin white lines in a chevron pattern. In the lower right is a red table with a bright yellow vase covered with swipes of brown and green. The vase is filled with elongated, abstract mauve-pink and mint-green shapes on slender white stems. The back wall of the room has an aqua-green cabinet to our left, which holds a silver urn and dishes of round objects. There is also a cantaloupe-orange footstool and other pieces of small furniture there, below paintings on the white wall. Above the woman is a white door with panels outlined in gray, and a section of black wall to our right has more paintings. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “Henri Matisse 40.”
Henri Matisse, Woman Seated in an Armchair, 1940, oil on canvas, Given in loving memory of her husband, Taft Schreiber, by Rita Schreiber, 1989.31.1

Woman Seated in an Armchair

Henri Matisse · 1940 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1989.31.1
A woman plays an upright piano as two boys play checkers at a table in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of flat color and pattern. The people have pale, peachy skin and dark brown hair. Their facial features are painted with dots or short strokes of black. The piano is against the wall to our left. The woman wears a short-sleeved, lemon-yellow dress with a long skirt. A music book is propped on the music stand, and loosely painted objects line the top of the instrument. The wall behind the piano is patterned with white and pale yellow flowers under and around arches against a cranberry-red background. The table where the boys play is in the middle of the room. The players sit in wooden chairs and wear black and white striped jackets with white collars. The boy to our right looks at the board while resting his left cheek, closer to us, in his hand. The other boy looks on with his arms on the table in front of him. The checkerboard sits on a red and white striped cloth, which has lines of black dots in the white strips. Beneath the table is a floral rug with blue and black flowers against a red background. The border is painted loosely with leafy shapes against bright white. Beneath the area rug the floor or another carpet is garnet red with a diamond-shaped grid painted in orange. A petal-pink, upholstered chair sits in front of a tall wardrobe in the back corner of the room. A picture with two violins against a blue background hangs on the side of the furniture to our right. A chest of drawers next to the wardrobe holds a few bowls or objects and a white statue, about half human height. The statue is of a person standing with one knee bent in front of the other, one elbow tucked by the side with that hand held to the chest, and the other bent elbow raised overhead. Pictures hang on the wall around the statue, and the wallpaper there is ivory white with a dark yellow pattern. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, “Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Pianist and Checker Players, 1924, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.25

Pianist and Checker Players

Henri Matisse · 1924 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.25

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